This invention relates to searching for, and exchange of, information, using a combination of human participants and computer-based information repositories.
Today, most searches for information stored in electronic format are mediated entirely by a computer, or by one or more networks of computers. However, a computer is a quick, but inflexible, responder, and the query source presenting a query can never be confident that the query is being adequately interpreted, or that several shades of meaning of the query are being explored. Herein, a xe2x80x9cqueryxe2x80x9d can be a general or specific question, an observation, one or more key words or phrases, a statement of asserted fact or any similar interrogatory or statement. Another problem is that even after a query is adequately interpreted, there is no assurance that a satisfactory response to the query is present in the database or other information repository being searched.
What is needed is an information exchange system that provides a combination of human-mediated and computer-mediated responses to a query and that permits real time dialog between the information seeker and a human mediator to clarify and/or adjust the query, in order to focus on one or several meanings intended by the information seeker. Preferably, the system should take advantage of the collective knowledge of one or more authorities or individuals who have access to the specific information in a given knowledge area and should supplement this knowledge with knowledge available from one or more computer-mediated information repositories. Preferably, the system should be flexible so that the user or seeker can terminate the search at any of two or more levels of queries and should provide the user or seeker with earlier responses to any parallel or related queries.
These needs are met by the invention, which provides responses to a query at each of at least three levels: at a first level, where a dispatcher or coordinator classifies the query and optionally responds to the query from the dispatcher""s personal knowledge; at a second level, using electronic or other searching of one or more information repositories accessible from the dispatcher""s network or computer terminal; and at third and subsequent levels, using the collective knowledge of other persons with relevant expertise or access to relevant information concerning the query. Herein, a xe2x80x9cterminalxe2x80x9d can be a computer connected to a computer network, a wireless portable network access device, a cellular phone, a conventional landline telephone, or any other means that facilitates connecting to the network and provides the necessary local computational functionality.
The user or information seeker, together with the other persons (xe2x80x9crespondersxe2x80x9d), provide an information exchange mechanism, in which a user or information seeker for one query may become a responder for another query. A query circulates through this information exchange network until the query is interrupted by the user or is received by one or more responders, human or computer-based, that provides a satisfactory response for the user. The user may then provide comment or feedback on some or all of the responses.
Large numbers of users or information seekers, connected to an information network such as the Internet, exchange information by presenting natural language queries to the system and receiving natural language responses from the system. At any time, a (properly authorized) user can choose to provide a response to a query posted on the network, or to indicate an interest in any subsequent response to the query. Some users may (also) serve as query dispatchers, by providing a classification or categorization of the query according to some classification format, by providing meta-data markup of one or more queries posted by others, by creating a new class or category, if needed, or by routing one or more queries to other users believed to be likely responders to the query(ies). These actions can result in multi-level information routing.
A central controller may collect all queries and responses thereto, thus adding to a potential central knowledge base, but does not attempt to classify or route the queries. The controller broadcasts or multicasts the queries to all users or information seekers, or to a selected subset of all users, who employ information filters, located at the users"" computer terminals, to parse all queries and to retain relevant queries. An information filter provides rough semantic filtering based on a query""s asserted classification, or upon the presence of key words. This filtering does not serve as a final decision on which queries to respond to. A user can initiate a real time conversation (chat session) with one or more other users who are sources of one or more other queries that are visible to the user, based on topics of common interest that are implicit or explicit in these queries. The user can also initiate a real time session with other users, regardless of their present or past queries, if the network addresses or other identifiers of these other users have been previously stored on the user""s computer terminal.
The system optionally provides an indication of which users are presently on line. Each query is assigned a globally unique identifier at the terminal and time the query is first presented, thus eliminating use of an extensive central look-up table and enabling a user to instantly subscribe to a query and its progeny. An optional, dynamically adjustable scoring point scheme is adopted to unify and standardize the results of user feedback, the quality of the classifications and search results, and the performance and efficiency of dispatchers and responders used to supplement the searches. A scoring point scheme is used to reward top user-contributors to the information exchange and to identify users that do not adequately participate in or contribute to the exchange.